Tuesday, October 28, 2014

brisbanetimes : "Momentum is building for public transport to be free in Brisbane throughout the three days of the G20 world leaders summit next month.

Commuter advocacy group Rail Back on Track has called for free public transport in the city throughout the three days, reasoning that Brisbane residents should be afforded the same opportunity as the 7000 summit delegates, who will all be given Go Cards for travel through the period."

Monday, October 6, 2014

The Guardian: "The evidence from around the world shows that cities that build their transport systems around public transport find that transport costs are less of a drain on the regional economy than those that put the car at the centre of their transport plans.

This is in part because of the huge public cost of building and maintaining roads, combined with the private costs of owning and running the family fleet of cars. It is also because of the high cost of the social isolation endured by the young, the old, and the increasing number of people who are cut off from jobs, hospitals, and social networks.

Public transport, along with cycling and walking, is part of the solution to transport’s contribution to the climate emergency, the reality of which we are experiencing with increasing frequency."

Greens' Safe Climate Bill

Travelling with a light footprint
Australia's cities and suburbs are increasingly being built around cars, not people, and more of our intercity travel and freight is going by road or air instead of rail. In a world where peak oil and climate change are converging, this has to change fast.
We have to redesign our cities for people instead of cars, with urban villages connected by fast, efficient and convenient buses, trams and trains, cycleways and pedestrian paths. We have to give ourselves real alternatives to flying between cities. We have to end the subsidies to fossil fuel based transport. We have to think a few steps into the future, instead of repeating the same old mistakes of the past. ReadMore [pdf]